Category Archives: Zine Fairs

Once again I am at work sans boss and listening to a combination of The Magnetic Fields and Electrelane (surprise, surprise), all of which indicates that it is time to update Tiny Paper Hearts. No new zines yet for me and the fetus, however based on the excellent times we had at Sticky’s 2010 Festival of the Photocopier we have decided to once again descend on Melbourne for the I am Typewriter: The Triumph of Continued Usefulness Festival.

The festival runs from the 3rd to the 13th of February, with the zine fair taking place in the Degraves Subway on Saturday the 12th. Hopefully some other interstate zinemakers will attempt the trip as I cannot recommend it highly enough, and there’s plenty of other events for those who don’t have zines to sell/trade. Plus Sticky has organised an official typewriter soundtrack, so there’s that.

Ok, the demands of administrative work are calling. Catch you in February.

So you know it already but the This Is Not Art Festival, and more specifically the National Young Writers’ Festival, kicks off this Thursday 30th September til Monday 4th October in Newcastle. I’ve attended the last 3 years, and wrote about last year’s experience here, but I think I’ve filled my quota of zine fairs for 2010 + I’m really tired + I can’t get the time off work. So unfortunately this unholy trifecta (as well as some other inconsequentials) means that the fetus and I won’t be having a Tiny Paper Hearts stall at The Sunday Fair.

But it behooves me to recommend the NYWF program, as there is some plenty interesting stuff being done by plenty interesting people – Bastian Phelan, John Stevens, Leigh Rigozzi, Lisa Dempster and Vanessa Berry to mention a few. Can I also make a couple of musical recommendations? Grouper will be playing as part of the TiNA Showcase gig on the Saturday and kyü will be playing at Soundclash on the Sunday. Both should be excellent shows that I’m pretty bummed at missing (although luckily Grouper’s playing at the Sandringham the following weekend).

Anyways, have an excellent time if you’re heading to Newcastle. Catch you on the flip side.

So a little update about some ziney things coming up that I wish I could attend (but regrettably can’t).

As we’ve posted before, the Canberra Zine fair is coming up on the 3rd July. If you’re in Canberra, hurrah! If not, what are you afraid of? Take Care zine distro will be making the pilgrimage from Sydney as well as a number of other Sydney/Wollongong zinemakers so why not, give it a whirl.

Secondly, and if you’re on the Australian Zines and Small Press Google Group you’ll already know about this, but there’s a zine reading slash show and tell at Marrickville’s Urchin Books on the 18th July. It’s being put together by Vanessa Berry and promises a delightful afternoon of tea and mutual zine sharing and appreciation away from the hectic and often stressful (for me at least) world of zine fairs and markets. So take your zines, if you have any, or just take yourself to Marrickville for the day, week, rest of your life. Also Urchin Books is looking to stock some more zines so check with them the why’s and how’s on the day.

Thirdly, and this is not strictly zine related, but a friend sent me a link to the screening of Strange Powers at the Chauvel on the 4th of August that I wish wish wish I could go to, but unfortunately I’ll be separated from Oxford Street by an ocean, several land masses and the supposedly linear nature of time. BUT, if you have ever read any of my zines (or possibly only the titles) you will have realised that I have a ridiculous love for The Magnetic Fields, one that is all encompassing and indefatigable. So if you are in town, and feel like watching a documentary on my favourite songwriter/musician, then go with my blessing.

And I guess that’s about it. Happy holidays kids (if you’re on them), soldier on if not.

I’ve been getting a little anxious as the time for the MCA Zine Fair draws closer and closer without a word about it anywhere. So I went directly to the source and I am happy to announce that the MCA Zine Fair will be on again this year.

For those who haven’t attended before it is usually a pretty crazy busy day, but what a fun crazy busy day. With over 40 stalls of zine makers, trades become like the stock exchange, minus the suits and stocks. Not only does it draw zine people from all over NSW into one spot for the day, it brings our lovely interstate zine peeps!

So, I have been informed that all we have to do is just be patient, that call-out e-mail will come. If you aren’t on the MCA mailing list, it might be a good time to subscribe, alternatively you can subscribe to our blog and you won’t miss a trick.

The 2010 Format zine fair was definitely an exercise in endurance festival-attending. Firstly, because we initially meant to attend both the Blacktown Coded zine fair and fly to Adelaide the same day (which we soon realised was too ambitious, even for us) we arrived in Adelaide after most of the Academy of Words workshops and panels had finished.

BUT we still managed to attend Literary Friction, a “RockWiz-style lit game” hosted with panache by Angela Meyer and Estelle Tang and adjudicated by the ever impartial Lisa Dempster. It was an excellent start to the evening’s festivities and was soon followed by Craig Schuftan’s ‘You Can’t Stop The Musing’ disco lecture and DJ set which was amazingly fun and lived up to its promise to “put the disco back into discourse”.

The DJ set soon descended into indoor handball, rife with interstate tensions and a refusal to accept what we thought was the universal rule of ‘played on’. Format has moved from last year’s Hindley St venue to an excellent spot at 15 Peel Street so apart from its basement handball possibilities it also has a permanent zine shop which should, nay must, be checked out.

Sunday morning found us wandering the abandoned city centre in search of coffee and setting up for the Format zine fair in a timely fashion. It cannot be said enough but there are some truly lovely people doing lovely things in Adelaide and massive kudos must be paid to Sam Rodgers for organising the zine fair and for staying up so late on the Saturday night setting it up.

We managed to shotgun a table upstairs and spent the day talking, selling, trading, burrito-eating and handballing.

I think my favourite part of the day was the machine sewn portraits wall, of which Mary-Helen and I are now proud contributors to. I was incredibly sleep deprived and so I’ve managed to forget this talented lady’s name, but she was a crafty inspiration that I desperately needed.

And that’s pretty much that. Thanks Adelaide for the trades and the conversations and the karaoke and the 5am pancakes. We’ve left some of our zines at Format if you want to get a hold of them and keep an eye on their website for more exhibitions, shows and general festivites.